Hubworld - A Very Selective Mass Crossover
by RetrogradeEntropy
Summary: Highschool has ended for the Eds, and Edd finally has to make the transition from his tiny town of Peach Creek to the sprawling urban jungle of the Hubworld and leave his childhood best friends behind. As he moves in, makes new friends, and prepares for the challenges of higher education, a darker story unfolds.


Years have passed since the conclusion of the television run of Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy. The boys have all progressed in their educations, grown taller, learned to drive, and graduated (all with varying degrees of success.) Of course, they all made it. They were always going to. Even Ed, faced with doubting peers and parents, was able to walk across the stage on the lawn of Peach Creek High to accept his diploma that day. Rolf, Kevin, Nazz, Johnny, Jimmy, and the Kanker siblings joined them. They were all growing up.

Many of their paths would see them leaving the other kids and the Cul-De-Sac. As soon as she was able, Marie took off for the city, coaxing her sputtering station wagon down the long stretches of highway. Her head was full of urban dreams and plans. Her sisters remained behind in Peach Creek, helping their aging mother and coming to terms with the fact that childhood was over.

Meanwhile, that same realization was hitting everyone like bricks. Everyone except Eddward. His post-secondary plans had been concrete for years. His parents had found him the best possible university in the nicest part of the Big City, and were paying for everything. Naturally, he was accepted. Edd had graduated valedictorian, the top of his class, with an outstanding number of volunteer hours. His transcript was immaculate. He could go anywhere.

The other two Eds were faced with the realization of impending adulthood as well, but there was one other thing they were forced to reconcile with. Their childhood friend was leaving them.

Edd and Eddy didn't part on the best of terms. Edd played the last conversation over and over in his head on the bus ride, his stomach aching with regret. Eddy was always the type to lash out when he got emotional, and instead of talking reasonably about Edd's decision to go where his friends could not follow, his dread finally culminated into a tearful outburst. If he felt any shame for it afterward, he was too afraid to apologize. Edd hoped to have heard from him the morning before he left. As much as it pained him, he wasn't as worried as he could have been. He was certain that they would talk later, patch things up, and be the same friends they ever were.

Still… just like any instance of fighting with his friends, Edd couldn't not cry.

Ed's goodbye was much kinder. Lots of bone-breaking hugging and crying on his part. Edd couldn't help but likewise become emotional. He was going to miss them a lot.

The bus ride took the better part of the day. The university was about a 7 hour trip from his home. Despite his cushy travel pillow and pre-prepared audiobooks, he fidgeted stiffly in his seat, far less comfortable than he had been earlier in the journey.

As his copy of Anna Karenina played in his ears, his sadness eventually slipped under the rising emotions surrounding his new place of study: namely excitement and anxiety. He was thrilled to meet other like-minded people, collaborate on their research, and walk the halls of academia like so many of the greats before him. His focus? He hadn't been able to decide yet. He had a lot of interests. Edd wanted to determine a major as soon as possible. He had even prepared a list of intro-level classes he wanted to take to aid in that decision. Physics, Robotics, Geosciences, Biopsychology, Applied Genetics, the list went on.

A friend of Edd's new roommate was expected to meet him at the bus station upon his arrival. Edd had been insistent upon finding a room for himself somewhere within walking distance, as the dorms required freshman to bunk with another person for their first year. Edd had predicted this not working out very well, he knew of the horrors of college roommates. His search led him to making a friend named Coop, a very relaxed young man, sort of if Eddy was taller and also a nice person. Who also worked on robots. Coop appeared to be a very skilled mechanic, which fascinated Edd. The two hit it off, and Coop offered up his spare room in his apartment at the Box Heights Apartment Complex.

Edd didn't know much about the person he was meeting. He had one very unflattering picture and a name to go by. The young woman had a cropped bob of black hair, several piercings, and a sour expression. He sighed. If the welcome wasn't exactly warm, at least he would only have to deal with it for a short time.

The bus pulled in on schedule at 4:15 pm. Edd jolted from his nap to the squeal of the brakes and the shifting of other passengers as they began to rise up. He looked out his window to see where they were.

The buildings were _massive_. He had remembered them being big when his parents brought him here on trips as a much younger child, but seeing them again still amazed him. He had been in a city twice, _maybe_ three times before. And there were _so many people_.

After gathering his items and retrieving his two bags from the storage shelves, Edd stepped off the bus into the station lobby, navigating his way through the throng of new arrivals. Next to the digital bus arrival and departure schedule hung a large, nicely painted sign reading "Welcome to the Hubworld!" The curvy scripted font swept below a painted skyline of the city, with notable landmarks such as the enormous KND embassy, the AcmeCorp building, and the Observatory.

Edd overcame his wonder and began scanning the room for the person he was supposed to meet. He was struck by the sheer variety of people here. Individuals of all shapes, sizes, and colors were present just in this bus stop. The person he was looking for was a fairly normal looking human, so he peered past the crazy, multi-colored characters as best he could to find her. The mass of the crowds and the noise they generated was almost too much for Edd. His senses were being overloaded. He needed to sit down and adjust.

He found a row of seats and clambered into one of them, his breathing a little labored. A layer of sweat had formed on his brow. This was wracking his nerves. He decided that he would just wait here for his contact to come find him.

Time passed. Edd had been waiting there for an uncomfortable amount of time. He nervously glanced down at his watch, noting the increments that had elapsed since the expected meeting time.

Coop had given him a number to call if he needed to get in touch with her. Hesitantly, he gave it a call. It rang. And rang. And eventually went to voicemail.

Leaving a polite message, Edd hung up tucked his phone back into his bag. This was doing his blood pressure no favors.

Thankfully, the crowd had thinned considerably. Feeling better about his environment, Edd decided to check out the outside. He needed some fresh air.

He ventured up from the spot he was in and took his bags just out the front door of the station and onto the sidewalk. The streets were a busy multi-colored stream of cars and pedestrians, all as varied as those he had seen before. Edd stood, his mouth agape, taking in just how different some of these figures were. He spied bright red fellow, 10 ft. tall, effortlessly stepping over the crowd to snatch a balloon out of the air that had escaped a small upset child. The kid immediately ceased their crying as a long arm returned their balloon to them. Continuing to gaze upward, Edd noticed the buildings looming above him again, something he still wasn't used to, and in the sky he swore he could see a pink stream of light. Then a blue one. Then a green one.

As the crowds pressed in around him, Edd was beginning to realize that he couldn't see the bus station anymore. In fact, he wasn't even next to the bus station. He was next to a Thai noodle place. What? Had he inadvertently wandered that far? Impatient passerby were brushing past him, pushing him even farther down the street.

The sheer volume of bodies was causing him to be swept down the street.

Frantically, he looked all around, having lost his sense of direction completely. He looked back (or what his best guess at "back" was) and tried to maneuver his way past the oncoming traffic.

It was to no avail. The fast moving bodies made no opening for him.

Inevitably, Edd was bumped _hard_ by someone moving very fast, and he stumbled, his bags plummeting out of his hands and down a set of stairs leading off from the sidewalk.

"Drat!" He huffed panickedly, with what breathe he had left. That hit had really winded him.

He scampered over to the stairs, down which his bags had tumbled and subsequently opened, scattering his clothes across the concrete.

Edd sighed defeatedly. Things were going… very poorly.

He descended the stairs, which led to a weird amalgam of a low alley and a canal, with a few back doors here and there leading to the back of various businesses, and bent over to collect his things and replace them into his luggage. His phone, which had fallen out of one of the outer pockets of the bag, would no longer turn on. His clothes, while not soiled, were far too dirty to wear by his standards. They would need a thorough washing when he got to his room. _If_ he got to his room.

Not only was he lost, but he was also so thoroughly disheartened that he shoved his items back into their containers (without folding his shirts or arranging them neatly) and shut their lids forcefully, tears only just beginning to sting his eyes. Dropping onto the bottom step of the stair, he sat with his arms folded over his knees and sighed deeply.

"Today's not going quite like I'd hoped it would." he lamented to himself.

He remained there for a minute, listening to the babbling of the canal echo against the walls of the wide alley. The air was danker down here, and cooler. It was sort of refreshing.

Edd's ears perked up. He could have sworn he heard something. It was faint, but… Indeed, there it was. Down the alley, he believed he could hear the sound of whimpering. Much like a dog.

He sat up and started edging toward the source of the sound to try and see…

A dog! It was shaking, visibly nervous, but it eventually began trotting closer. As it came into view, Edd noted its distinctly purple fur.

"Oh my… Why, hello there, my canine friend." He cooed.

The dog noticed him and halted. He could see its wide, startled eyes and the little patch of brown on its back. As Edd beckoned, the dog approached him, hesitant. It was extremely timid. Edd wondered what had happened to frighten it so badly. Though, as he recalled the scene on the street, his inquiry evaporated.

Edd patted the ground next to him and spoke softly, making himself appear small and friendly. The dog eventually warmed to him, and came close enough for Edd to reach out and touch. He stroked the poor thing and scratched behind its ears, which it enjoyed very much.

"There we are. I won't hurt you, little guy."

He eyed the creature's collar.

"Let's see this, then… Do you have an owner we can call?"

The tag did, in fact, have a number attached to it. Edd began to reach for his phone before recalling with frustration that it was still broken. He then turned the tag over in his hand to see if it said anything else.

"... Courage?"

The dog looked up at him, as if to say " _yes?"_

"Well, it looks as though we're both lost, little guy."

Courage wagged his tail, the two of them markedly less afraid than they had been.

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit."

Jane didn't bother to brush her hair or check her reflection before she slammed the door on her way out of the apartment. Or put on socks.

She had overslept, which wasn't out of the ordinary. But it was an extreme inconvenience, especially when she had been expected at the bus station twenty-five minutes ago as a favor to her friend, Coop. The kid she was supposed to show around was probably pissed. Not that she cared about that particularly, but she was definitely going to hear about it from Cooplowski when he got back from work.

Jane speed-walked down the street, brushing past the people who were moving too slow for her liking and cursing under her breath whenever stopped at a crosswalk. Inside her boots, her bare feet were chafing.

It was almost 5:00 pm as she jaywalked to the bus station doors. Coop had hastily sent her a picture of the kid this morning. She pulled the screen up on her phone to see a scrawny, nerdy looking guy wearing a black beanie. Looked really short, but shouldn't be too hard to find.

She scanned the lobby. No sign of him. She waited impatiently for a few minutes, expecting him to come out of the bathrooms. When that didn't happen, she showed the photo to the woman at the front desk, who shrugged, then paused, then said she saw a very young man with the same hat on leave the lobby with some bags that were much too big for him. Jane groaned.

He was supposed to be _here_. That was the plan, right? She had done her part. If he had decided to run off, she couldn't help him. But looking down at the photo again, her gut wrenched a little. She _had_ been late. Maybe he had just stepped out for some air, or a snack, not knowing when she'd be here. Shit, _anything_ could have happened to him. Despite her irritation, she worried.

Thanking the lady, she walked back outside. She called the number It didn't even finish ringing before the machine told her the number wasn't taking calls.

"Well, fuck." Jane was already exhausted by this. The only thing she could think to do was to keep looking.

Edd rose from his kneeling position by Courage, his knees protesting.

"Well, we can't just sit here, can we? I guess we should go ask for directions, huh? I can borrow a phone and find your owner, yes I can. Would you like that?" He smiled as he scratched under Courage's chin, who was pretty happy to follow Edd around at this point.

He had just began to pick up his bags when the light from the top of the stairs dimmed. Edd titled his head up to see a silhouetted figure peering down at them inquisitively. It looked as if it were about to withdraw, but quickly looked back over as if double-checking.

"Wait… uh... Edd...ward?"

Edd's eyes were only just adjusting, but he could make out her features now. Indeed, it was the girl from the photo Coop had sent him. _Thank god,_ he thought. As relieved as he was to see her, he couldn't keep his irritation from flaring.

She traipsed down to him. "There you are. I was scared the city ate you or something."

Edd continuing gathering his luggage, "Nearly." he replied stiffly.

Jane shoved her hands in her pockets. "Hey, I'm Jane… Sorry I'm late. I, uh.. slept in in a bad way. You'd think at least one of my four alarms would do it."

"And a phone call."

"Oh… yeah." She stiffened. "I work the night shift at the liquor store and didn't get off 'til early this morning, so… yeah." She leaned down and cocked her head to see him better. "Are you, uh… alright? I tried calling back…"

Edd produced the broken device to show her. "It, um… fell." He coughed.

She hissed. "Damn, that sucks, dude. I-I know a guy who does phone repair…"

Edd sighed. "Its quite alright… I'll manage." He looks up to her, his expression softened. "Listen… just... thank you for finding me. I clearly need some time to adjust to the differences in scale and... population here."

Jane almost smiled. "You'll get used to it." Her eyes shifted over to Courage. "Oh. You brought your dog? You know pets aren't allowed in the building, right?"

"Oh, no, he's not mine. Why, I found this little guy down here all by himself. Could you call the number on his tag? I'm sure his owner is worried sick."

"Sure you don't wanna just sneak him into the apartment?" She grinned, getting the number off of Courage's collar.

"Jane, please…"

"I'm doin it." With one hand, she helped Edd with one of his bags. With the other, she began dialing a number with a very unfamiliar area code.


End file.
